STS Circle at Harvard [image.png] Jeremy Blatter Harvard, History of Science on The Street as Psychological Laboratory: Hugo Münsterberg, Harold Burtt, and the 1914 Street Lighting Committee Monday, November 26 12:15-2:00 p.m. Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Room 100F [image.png] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts<mailto:[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<mailto:[email protected]> by 5pm Wednesday, November 21. Abstract: On May 11, 1914, a committee of eminent illuminating engineers from the National Electric Light Association (NELA) including Charles Steinmetz, Preston Millar, Louis Bell and John W. Lieb, convened in New York City to discuss their ongoing investigation to optimize street lighting conditions. However, there were not only engineers at the table; also in attendance was a young graduate student in psychology named Harold E. Burtt. Burtt’s presence at the meeting that day had been arranged by his mentor Hugo Münsterberg—Director of the Harvard Psychological Laboratory—who had recently joined the NELA Street Lighting Committee in the capacity of academic advisor and psychological expert. In a report prepared one month earlier, Münsterberg had argued that the “higher mental processes” involved in the Committee’s street lighting investigation had been sorely neglected. Photometric data and tests of visual acuity were insufficient; what was required was careful attention to diverse psychological factors such as attention, reaction time and motor-coordination. The committee, therefore, resolved to hire Burtt for the summer to run a battery of psychological tests under the varied street lighting conditions afforded by their testing ground, a half-mile stretch of Intervale Avenue in the Bronx. In this paper I explore the dynamic interaction between psychologists and illuminating engineers in their pioneer efforts to experimentally determine the safest, most efficient, and aesthetically pleasing street lighting configuration. Exploring both points of consensus and contention, I will show not only how these distinct professional identities were negotiated, but also how their respective forms of expertise and governance were brought to bear on the problem of street lighting in the age of electrification. Biography: Jeremy Blatter is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science at Harvard University. In his dissertation,The Psychotechnics of Everyday Life: Hugo Münsterberg and the Politics of Applied Psychology, 1892-1929, he explores the development of applied psychology by situating this history within an array of prominent academic, political, and cultural debates waged between the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. In addition to his dissertation research, Blatter is also interested in the intersection of science and visual culture and recently co-curated the exhibit “Cold War in the Classroom: The Material Culture of Mid-Century Science Education” at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/ Follow us on Facebook: STS@Harvard<http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS> _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to the Harvard STS Circle mailing list. [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, please click here: http://lists.ksg.harvard.edu/u?id=114309.68a0e2670e977096141663bb022c99c6&o=74041&n=T&c=F&l=harvard-sts _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to the Harvard STS Circle mailing list. [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, please click here: http://lists.ksg.harvard.edu/u?id=96576.21d356cd6aaf25b41e41c022217c5a96&o=76674&n=T&c=F&l=harvard-sts
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